Super amnesty whitewashes decades of corporate theft
18 September 2019
ACTU

     Super amnesty whitewashes decades of corporate theft

The Morrison Government has reintroduced a bill to provide an amnesty for all theft of superannuation since the first day of the superannuation system.

The amnesty provides a period of two years for employers to disclose any theft of superannuation for which they can then avoid any kind of sanction.

Industry Super Australia has previously reported that workers are losing $5.9 billion in super every year to theft. The Morrison Government has previously claimed that this amnesty would recoup $200 million of this in total, covering a period of more than 27 years. Adding up to less than 3 per cent of just one year of stolen super.

Superannuation is a basic workplace right and we know that theft of super is systemic. Choosing to let employers off the hook rather than increase penalties and enforcement for this massive theft shows what side of this issue the Morrison Government is on.

Quotes attributable to ACTU Assistant Secretary Scott Connolly

“This amnesty will not recover the billions which have been stolen from workers since the beginning of the superannuation system. It’s a farce set up by a government obsessed with helping business find new ways to exploit workers.

“In a week where Alan Joyce is taking home 275 times the pay of the average worker, the Government is letting dodgy bosses get away with stealing from workers’ super.

“All workers should have an easily accessible mechanism to enforce unpaid wages and entitlements, including super.

“If the Morrison Government was serious about ending theft of superannuation it would increase enforcement, penalties, and allow unions back into workplaces to inspect pay records and to initiate recovery action against employers.

“This amnesty is an insult to all Australian workers and yet another demonstration of the Morrison Government’s commitment to its business backers.”

So organisations that have stolen billions in employees super will be allowed to escape penalty and keep the money....How do Coalition supporters defend this bullshit???

There are two ways to look at it.  The first is that this may be a quicker way for the workers to get what they are owed.  It doesn't help them recoup what was lost in terms of that money working for them, but the quicker it gets into their account be it a major fund or self-managed the better.  Having to take the case, each case through to various levels to get a ruling and the money can take time and costs money (even if just to the taxpayers) so this might end up saving time and money.

The other way of looking at it is, even with the above, it means even if there was malice in not paying this in the first place, it will go unpunished. 

If the Government could be trusted not to waste our tax dollars I'd be more open to the first interpretation and considering this a good move, but they can't and given their history, especially their attacks on workers rights, this just seems to be yet another way of them helping their own that is held up as a win for the workers, when in reality it isn't.

Government is all about compromise, it just seems when it comes to the Coalition, everyone else is expected to compromise and when the roles are reversed, the Coalition refuses to and would gladly see as much pain inflicted on whoever is involved, even the people, just so they can blame the other side.

And it's very effective given how many people still support them.  For decades they've not been able an actual measured and conservative approach to betting the country.  I was far more supportive of their policies back then and even voted for them, but the party now is all about themselves and what the country can do for them and their interests.  They lost their way but have been able to continue to pull the wool over their supporter's eyes.

Gosh the dull dreary boring union propaganda parrot Blackday is squawking at full tilt the garbage from that Extremist Commo Socialist Feminazi Sheila at the rabid ACTU - the mouse that roared.

That $ 200 million will end up back in the pockets of Liberal Party backers who stole it in the first place.

macman wrote on Sep 19^th, 2019 at 7:27am:


Should be put on a watch list and regularly turned over by authorities...


In another vein, Moppets - you are seeing here the very things that stimulate a populace to cry out for a totally regulating government - and you know where that ends... the ripping off by the 'betters', the decadence etc, along with weak government and the dire straits of the 'peasants' lead to the rise of National Socialism in Germany...

All 'Workers' are bludgers
who do not take on the responsibility of the Business Owner and Corps, Companies, etc.
They deserve x275 less than their Employer.

GST is a tax many nations pay to their Employer: The USA for 'protection'.
Super Annuation was just another industry created to create 'more jobs' (The Super Industry!!!) of people taking more money from the Employers and giving it to 'them' and the 'Workers'.
The Super Industry is obviously doing a far more job financially than the UNIONS. While they get the Worker a good 'tip' off the Employer, they take their cut for locking it away in the hope a Recession or Depression will 'wisk many Worker's Supers into 'cyberspace' by hundreds of thousands of dollars... 'lost'. 
The Unions sadly 'charge' the Worker a 'Fee' more basically ($90+ pa) up front for them having a go at the Employer for whatever they can get.

No wonder Australia says

"Give us your Rich, your Educated, your Business..."

unlike the USA which says on the Statue of Liberty:

"Give us your poor, your downtrodden..."

Who would want to 'run a business' in Australia?! 
I think even the British are ready to pack up and take their Union Jack off the Australian Flag. They're already Brexiting the EU.

Elect a Liberal government and get what you deserve.

A liberal government will bend you over and hold you down for business to rape you every time.